The radio host Kyle Sandilands has revealed that he is to undergo “immediate” brain surgery after he was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.
The 53-year-old, who co-hosts The Kyle & Jackie O Show with Jackie Henderson – Sydney’s top-rating FM breakfast show – said on-air on Monday that he was diagnosed after a period of debilitating headaches. He was absent from the show on Friday due to illness.
“I was told by my medical team – which sounds like I’m already very sick, to have a medical team – that I have a brain aneurysm, and it requires immediate attention, brain surgery,” he said on Monday.
“So if you just tuned in to us after all these years, lap it up. And if you’re in Melbourne, you’re coming to the party too late. You may get your wish. I may be dead. It is possible, it is highly possible.”
He showed staff in the studio his brain scan, pointing at the aneurysm and saying: “If that bursts, I die instantly.”
Sandilands did not say when he would be undergoing surgery, but said he could be absent from the airwaves for up to eight weeks.
“My wife, every time I look at her, her eyes well up with tears. She is already counting down the days,” he said.
He joked about his doctors’ instructions to avoid sex and drugs ahead of the surgery, saying: “The facts are, a life of cocaine abuse and partying are not the way to go.”
Billed as the “king and queen” of Australian commercial radio, Sandilands and Henderson have been presenting breakfast radio together for more than 20 years. Their show has rated No 1 in the breakfast slot in Sydney for 47 surveys in a row.
The Kyle & Jackie O Show is notorious for its broadcasting of vulgar and aggressive sexual language, with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) finding it has repeatedly breached radio decency rules.
Last month the Guardian revealed that almost half of all complaints made in the last financial year to Acma about decency standards on Australian radio were about The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
A $200m, 10-year deal to expand into Melbourne last year had so far spectacularly failed, with the show tanking in the ratings to a 5% market share at the end of 2024.
